Where? Where?

Are there invisible people in SL? On occasions over the past couple of days, my mini-map has shown people close by. They are shown as green dots, not triangles, so that means they are at the same height, doesn't it? I've looked all round in case I am standing on someone, but there is no one there ...

It happened again a short while ago. I was swimming in the Blake Sea, and the mini-map indicates someone right where I am. But there is no one there. And it's open sea all around - not like there is anywhere to hide.

It's like the opposite of that old poem:

As I was walking up the stairs,
I saw a man who wasn't there,
He wasn't there again today,
Oh, how I wish he'd go away.

In this case I am not seeing people who are there.

Are there phantoms in SL? Phantoms of the sea are one thing, but phantoms of shopping malls?

Has your av been under an unusual amount of stress lately? Taking any prescription pixellation? Does it hear voices?

Otherwise have you pressed 'Ctrl+Shift+Alt+4' for any reason lately or if only by accident? That's the keyboard shortcut for 'Advanced > Render > Character' which shows/hides avatars. Try pressing that combination again and see if the other avs reveal themselves.

If that doesn't help send us a slurl: this could be SL's first paranormal incident.

I have also been seeing people on the mini map that I can't find. I thought they might have been buried under ground as traffic bots or something.

Another possible (and slightly more plausible) reason is that they recently logged out. I have noticed that the mini-map sometimes leaves a green dot some time after an avatar has disconnected from the grid.

(But I do like the paranormal explanation above better!)

When aren't I under stress! Biting my finger nails so much ...



... that I don't have that dexterity at the best of times. Four keys at once? What, am I a concert pianist



No; just makes me and some boxes floating nearby disappear.



I'd do that, but I might be invading someone's privacy by posting it.

Could be. I've just gone back to the Blakes Sea location, and the blip is still present. But there is no one around, laterally, above or below. Spooky.

I'm back at the location after about a 40 minute break. Blip is still there.

I know this is going to sound daft, but could the person be disguised as a pair of crates? I recall a recent discussion about someone presenting as a box (is there a pun in there?). When I try Ephraim's character-render thing, those crates disappear. Does that mean they are an avatar? There is no name floating above them.

Haunted, floating crates. Does it get stranger than that?

They must be avatars. That shortcut only hides avatars.

Oh Jesus. Revenge of The Crates. Take what you're wearing and get out of that sim fast!

Perhaps it's an av whose girlfriend sent him packing.

--
Aes

They could be disguised as a box (or something else), but in that case they should still have a name tag over their head (sorry, over their lid). I don't know of any way of hiding the tag other than from yourself?

But why no name? I'm not saying you are wrong, just puzzled about the lack of name.

So, he had more than just his ears boxed?

Right click the crates and see if you are offered a profile.

That's what I thought.


Could it be anything to do with Blakes Sea being Linden Land (well, sea, really)? Or because the blip is right on the edge of two regions (or whatever they are called)?

I'll try that. Got to be away from the keyboard for a couple of hours, but will check it as soon as I get back.

And if not . . .

Pep ( . . . you'd better start thinking outside the box.)

There used to be a bug (might still be) that sometimes when someone logged out they didn't fully log out. As a result had trouble logging back in. I never noticed but I wonder if that happens if it doesn't leave a blip on the radar so to speak.

I've certaily had that in my store - green dot but nobody there. I had a Linden over to see it, who restarted the sim, and then the dot was gone.

When people crash, their avatar sometimes get left behind as a 'ghost'.
There are threads on doing things like sending them an IM, paying them L$1, whatever to trigger the sim to realise that they are nor really there.
There seems to be a variation on this in which the sim sorta kinda realises they have gone, but the minimap still shows them.
I've seen many cases of this, and at all sorts of altitudes. All over the grid - including the Blake Sea. The dots can stay there for days on end. Presumably only a sim restart will clear them.

There is another cause of a 'phantom' round dot on minimap.
An arrowhead instead of a dot is intended to indicate that the avatar is above or below your altitude. That gets broken if they are high up above the old build height, in which case the arrow head indicates that they are below you.
This is all "well known" stuff.

However, if you take your camera down towards 0 metres, you can suddenly see a round dot on minimap for an avatar that is 'way up'. It's just another case of the minimap code not being updated for the new heights.



Alternatively........

It's a plot/mystery/disturbance_in_the force
It could be Magellan.
Go back to the spot and shout "Magellan! Give us beer!". If it's him, you get L$10,000 written on a prim.

You can hide the name if prims get in the way. It is somewhat complicated. Need the "attach point" of the nametag, the center of mass, if you will, of the avatar to be such that prims hide the name. You can also hide the name with an invisiprim, but that method tends to be obvious.

So, yes, you can be invisible in SL. And if you have Linden god powers, you can hide from most radars. Apparently the Emerald built in radar will get them. And I recall seeing two Lindens shopping who didn't show up on radar, but did on the mini-map. I was going to say something to them, but just as I was about to wander over and causally tackle them for a bear or two, one of them lost their hair.

OK, back now. The blip is still there, as are the crates. Right-clicking them doesn't bring up a profile; just the usual things you'd expect for an object.

Now I realise why I bought an Mp5sd.

You were pulling my tail here, weren't you? I did it, but nothing happened apart from an increase in my embarrassment levels.

Have you possibly zoomed your mini-map way out so that things that seem right near you are really farther away?

They are most likely bots. There's always been a bug in the mini-map that shows avatars as being at ground level if they are above a certain height (I forget what that height is.) So these dots that seem to be on the ground (or below it) are almost certainly bots in a skybox way up high.